


■*^ 






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WANDEFMNGS IN THE OI\lENT 






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Class. 

Book. 



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Copyright N^ 



CDPYRIGKT DEPOSIT 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT 



BY 



ALBERT M. REESE 



WITH SIXTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPfIS 



CHICAGO LONDON 

THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1919 






COPYRIGHT BY 

THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 
1919 



OCi 2u 1919 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



©CI.A535a76 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Foreword 5 

I. Life in a Philippine Village 7 

II. A Visit to Tay Tay 18 

III. The Leper Colony of Culion 24 

IV. From Zamboanga to Singapore 29 

V. Singapore, the Melting Pot of the East 42 

VI. How Rubber Is Made 53 

VII. Two Chinese Cities 58 

VIII. Meanderings in Modern Manila 69 

IX. A Pacific Paradise, Honolulu 11 



FOREWORD. 

TO most Americans, "j^oino^ abroad" means visiting^ Europe. 
Since European travel will doubtless be unsatisfactory for some 
years to come, the globetrotter may well turn his attention to the 
Far Eeast which, while not so accessible, is after all easily reached 
if the cost be not prohibitive ; and the ubiquitous Cook is nearly 
always on hand to help the traveler out of difficulties. 

The trip across the Pacific is of course a long one, but the 
journey is interrupted, before the end of the first week, by a stop 
at that tropical paradise, the Hawaiian Islands. 

If one should need a complete rest, this seven thousand mile 
voyage is just the thing. If he desire he may read or study to 
good advantage. If inclined to sea-sickness there is plenty of 
time to recover and still enjoy the greater part of the journey. 
While the distances between stopping places are often great one 
feels that he can "do" a place in much less time than it would take 
in Europe, where objects of historic and other interest are so 
crowded together. If interested in the work of foreign missions 
abundant opportunity offers for their study at first hand. 

It was chiefly during these journeys between stopping places 
that the following sketches were written, as a sort of diary or log, 
illustrated by photographs taken by the writer. 

On a beautiful morning in May the U. S. Army Transport 
"Sherman," after a voyage of twenty-eight days from San Fran- 
cisco, tied up at the dock in Manila. The regular lines make the 
trip in much less time than the leisurely transports, but the writer, 
as a representative of the Smithsonian Institution, was furnished 
passage on the government vessel. With Manila as headquarters, 
collecting trips were made to various regions roundabout. Some 
of these places are described in the following chapters. 

Finally, upon one of the inter-island transports, a trip to the 
southermost islands of the Philippine group w^as made, ending a( 



6 WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 

Zamboanga, where the North German Lloyd steamer was taken for 
Singapore, via Borneo. From Singapore a four days' trip, without 
stop, brought us to Hongkong ; whence, after seeing that place and 
the nearby city of Canton, a two days' trip brought us again to 
Manila. It is the various places visited in this more or less out-of- 
the-way circuit that are described in the remaining chapters. 

A. M. R. 

MORGANTOWN^ W. Va. 



I. LIFE IN A PHILIPPINE VILLAGE. 

THE little village or barrio of Mariveles is situated just inside 
the narrow cape that forms the northern border of the entrance 
to Manila Bay. The city of Manila lies out of sight, thirty miles to 
the southeast, but the island of Corregidor lies only seven miles to 
the south, and the great searchlights at night are quite dazzling 
when turned directly upon the village. A large amount of money 
has recently been spent in fortifying Corregidor until it is now 
considered practically impregnable. 

The village extends for about half a mile close along the beach 
and is flanked, on the west, by the buildings of a United States 
quarantine station. 

Arriving by a very dilapidated launch from Manila I waited at 
the government dock while the native boy I had brought with me 
went to the village to find, if possible, a vacant house. He soon 
returned, with another boy to help carry our baggage, (there was 
not a cart or wagon of any sort in the place) and with the informa- 
tion that he had engaged a house for our use. A whole house for 
two people sounded rather formidable but as this house contained 
only two rooms its rental was not as extravagant as might have 
been imagined. It was located on the main thoroughfare which had 
the very American name of Washington Street. Like the typical 
native house, our Washing^ton Street mansion was built chiefly of 
bamboo and nipa palm, with a few heavier timbers in the frame- 
work. Upon the main timbers of the frame was built a sort of 
lattice of split bamboo, upon which in turn was sewed, shinglewise, 
close layers of nipa palm that are quite impervious to rain, are 
fairly durable, and are very inflammable. The people's floor was 
elevated four or five feet above the ground, thereby securing not only 
air and dryness for the people above, but also providing a very 
convenient chicken-coop and pig-pen beneath. The floor was made 
of split bamboo which made sweeping easy — merely a matter of 
pushing the dirt through the cracks between the strips of bamboo. 



8 WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 

Although the smell of even a clean pig under the dining-room 
table is rather objectionable at first, as is the crowing of two or 
three roosters early in the morning, it is surprising how soon one 
becomes accustomed to these little annoyances, and it simplifies 
domestic science considerably to be able to throw, from one's scat 
at table, banana skins and other scraps through a convenient hols 
in the floor and have them immediately disposed of by the pig and 
chickens beneath. 

The dining room, as in many American houses, also served as 
a kitchen. The stove was a large box, elevated two or three feet 




MARIVELES VILLAGE AND MOUNTAIN, FROM MANILA BAY. 

from the floor, lined with baked clay upon which the fire is made. 
Large iron spikes, arranged in groups of three, may be imbedded in 
the clay to hold one or more pots of dilTerent sizes. There was no 
chimney, but a convenient window carried out the smoke quite 
eft'ectively. The fire-wood was stored under the house in the pig- 
pen and consisted chiefly of short sticks of such diameter as could 
be easily cut with the large knife or bolo that the natives wear 
suspended from a belt at the waist. The sticks, when the cooking 
is done, are simply withdrawn from beneath the pot and lie ready 



LIFE IN A PHILIPPINE VILLAGE. 




OUR RESIDENCE ON "WASHINGTON STREET. 



10 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



to be pushed in again when the fire is Ht for the next meal. A very 
few sticks will thus serve for cooking a large number of the simple 
native meals. Opening from the kitchen was the front door, leading 
to the ground by a flight of stairs or a ladder. Thanks to the United 
States Mariveles is supplied with abundant water, piped from some 
miles up in the mountains, and some of the better houses of the 
barrio have a private faucet on the back porch, which is luxury 
indeed. The main room of the house was used as a living room 
and bedroom. In such houses there are usually large windows. 




NATIVE GIRL CARRYING BASKET OF CLOTHES. 



without sash of course, which are shaded by day and closed by 
night and in severe storms by a hinged awning of nipa, seen in the 
photographs. In spite of the warmth nearly all natives close the 
window shades tight when they sleep, so that, in spite of the numer- 
ous cracks, the ventilation must be very bad ; this may partly account 
for the prevalence of tuberculosis on the islands. 

Around the better houses in such a barrio is usually seen a 
high fence generally made of closely set vertical saplings, driven into 
the ground" and bound together with rattan at the top ; this fence 



LIFE IN A PHILIPPINE VILLAGE. 



11 



serves to keep the chickens in, and, at night, to keep prowHng 
animals out. 

Many of the houses have a tiny store at the ground level in 
which a small stock of canned goods, native fruits, dried fish, 
native shoes etc. may be seen. One of the main department stores 
of Mariveles is shown in the accompanying photograph, with the 
very American sign at the side of the entrance. 

Like many native villages Mariveles has a large stone church, 
with red tile roof, bell tower, etc. ; it is now in such bad repair as 




THE CHIEF STORE OF MARIVELES. 



to be unsafe, so that a crude shed with thatched sides and corru- 
gated iron roof has been built to take its place. No priest now 
lives in this barrio and the shed-like church did not have the ap- 
pearance of being much used. 

The village school, on the other hand, gave every indication 
of activity. Although not housed m a very handsome building, a 
glance through the windows and door showed many students of 
various ages all apparently busy and orderly under the supervision 
of several neat and bright looking native women. 

On the same street with the school a link with the outside world 



12 



WANDERINGS IN TlIK ORIENT. 



was seen in the sign "Telegraph and Post Office." This office was 
in charge of a native who, unlike most of the residents of the barrio, 
spoke English. In these villages it is usually easy to find natives 
who speak Spanish, but it is frequently difficult to find one who 
understands English. 

The men of the village were mostly engaged, though not very 
strenuously, in the rice paddies or in fishing. The women looked 
after the housekeeping, washing, tending the stores, etc., and their 
position of respect and authority in the homes and in society was 




THE OLD CHURCH. 



in marked contrast to that of other oriental and even of some Euro- 
pean women. 

A tiny store across the street from where we lived was tended 
during most of the day and in the evenings by an attractive young 
native woman who seemed to be quite a belle. Every evening, at 
about dark, a dapper young native, in an American suit of white, 
always appeared and seated himself upon the bench in front of the 
store, where he could see and talk to his brunette lady love without 
interfering with her commercial duties, which were not heavy. Often 
several other suitors appeared and, while it was not possible to 



LIFE IN A PHILIPPINE VILLAGE. 



13 




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14 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



understand what was said, since the conversation was all in Tagalog, 
from the frequent laughter it was evident that the girl was as able 
to entertain several admirers at once as are some of her blond 
sisters across the sea. Her voice was softer and her laugh more at- 
tractive than that of many an American belle of high social standing. 
In fact the women of this island village were, as a class, of remark- 
able dignity and modesty, so that there was probably less to shock 
one's modesty here than at many a fashionable American watering 
place. Of course ignorance of their language made it impossible 



i * ill. 





THE TELEGRAPH AND POST OFFICE. 



to understand all that was going on, but to judge by their actions 
and the tones of their voices it would seem that their family life 
is as peaceful and happy as that of the average American family. 
It is truly the "simple life" that they lead, and to us it seems a 
very narrow one ; yet it has its advantages over the "strenuous life" 
that most of us are compelled to live. There was little or no 
drunkenness or quarreling among the men, whose chief vice seemed 
to be gambling. 

This gambling instinct is gratified mainly by means of the 
cockpit. One of the most familiar sights of the islands is the 



LIFE IN A PHILIPPINE VILLAGE. 



15 



native man with a game cock or just a plain rooster under his arm. 
They pet and fondle these birds as we do cats or lap-dogs, and on 
Sundays (alas!) they gather at the cockpits to match their favorites 
against each other. Many barrios have large covered pits seating 
hundreds of people. The pit of Mariveles, which happened to be 
in the yard next to ours, was simply a square of about twenty feet 
enclosed by a low bamboo fence, in the shade of a huge acacia tree. 
Around this square were gathered about one hundred men (prob- 
ably all of the men of the barrio) and two or three women, and we 
shall hope that the few women who were there to witness so un- 




NATIVE "BANCA" NEAR MARIVELES. 



pleasant a spectacle were looking after their husbands to see that 
they did not bet too heavily. 

Inside the square were two or three officials, and two men 
holding the two contesting birds. A man at a table outside held the 
stakes and presumably kept track of the bettors, odds, etc. Instead 
of the weapons provided by nature each bird had securely fastened 
to his left leg, in place of the spur that had been cut ofif, a villain- 
ously sharp steel spur, slightly curved and about three inches long. 
A well directed thrust from this steel weapon may kill the victim 



16 



WANDERINGS IX THE (JRIEMT. 



almost instantly, and one victim was already hanging head-down 
to a near-by tree when 1 entered. 

While the bets were being arranged each bird was held, in 
turn, to let the other peck him ferociously, probably with the idea 
of making them mad enough to fight. When the bets were all ar- 
ranged the birds were placed on the ground facing each other, and 
with lowered heads and neck feathers erected they dashed together 
like tigers, jumping high over each other and endeavoring to stab 
one another with their artificial weapons. In the one fight wit- 
nessed (and one was enough to learn the ways of the cockpit) both 




A SCHOOLHOUSE IN ILOILO. 



birds were soon bleeding profusely and had lost their desire to 
fight, so that th" crowd called out some word and the cocks were 
picked up and "sicked" on each other again ; this was repeated 
until one bird had enough and retreated ignominiously to the farth- 
est corner of the pit, amid the shouts of the men who had bet on the 
other cock. In many cases, it is said, the vanquished bird is killed 
outright before he has time to retreat. 

The sport, while rather exciting, is certainly d moralizing, 
especially with the betting that always accompanies it. 

Such is the life of these simple people. Of course among the 
less civilized and the savage tribes conditions are very different, 



LIFE IN A PHILIPPINE VILLAGE. 17 

and a white man would not dare enter so intimately into the life 
of a barrio ; in fact in some regions it is very unsafe to go outside 
of the army posts without a proper guard. 

As to the character of the civilized Filipinos opinion seems to 
differ among the Americans of the Islands. That they are not 
yet capable of self-government seems to be almost universally be- 
lieved by Americans who have lived among them ; and that they are 
not energetic as a class is only what might be expected in such a 
climate. Some Americans have a rather high opinion of the moral 
character and general trustworthiness of the average native ; others 
do not hold such a high opinion of him and consider him the inferior 
of the American negro, mentally, morally and physically. As stu- 
dents in the University of the Philippines it is said they compare 
favorably with students in American universities. 

Doubtless there is as much variation, mental and moral, among 
the natives of the Philippine Islands as among the inhabitants of 
an Anglo-Saxon country, so that one's opinions are apt to be in- 
fluenced by the class of natives with which he chiefly comes in 
contact. 



IL A VISIT TO TAY TAY. 

THE cutter Busiianga of the Philippine Bureau of Navigation 
had been chartered to go to Tay Tay on the Island of Palawan, 
to bring back to Manila the party of naturalists of the Bureau of 
Science who had been studying the little-known fauna and flora of 
that far-away island, the most westerly of the Philippine group. 




VILLAGE OF TAY TAY FROM THE HARBOR. 

After leaving the dock at Manila at sundown we steamed out 
of the bay, past the searchlights of Corregidor and the other forts 
which were sweeping entirely across the entrance to the bay in a 
way that would immediaiely expose any enemy that might attempt 



A VISIT TO TAY TAY, 



19 



to slip by in the dark, and by nine o'clock we were headed in a sonth- 
westerly direction across the China Sea. 

The next day we passed through winding passages along the 
Calamaines group where every hour brought to view new islands 
of the greatest beauty and of every size and shape. Upon one of 
these islands is a leper colony which we visited and found most 
interesting. 

Early on the second morning we entered the harbor of the small 
but ancient village of Tay Tay (pronounced "tie tie" and spelled 




TWO PROMINENT HOUSES IN TAY TAY. 

in various ways) on the eastern shore of Palawan. Not a white 
man lives in this inaccessible hamlet and it is seldom that one visits 
it, as there is no regular communication of any sort with the out- 
side world. 

The village consists of a dozen or two native huts along the 
beach in a very pretty grove of coconut trees. Back of the village 
is a range of low mountains covered with tropical jungle. The 
main point of interest is a well constructed fort of stone, built 
on a small promontory that projects out into the bay. The walls 
of the fort are very massive and are surmounted at each of the 
four corners bv a round watch tower. On its land side the fort 



20 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



is entered through a narrow gate that leads by a stone stairway to 
the top of the promontory. On various parts of the walls are 
carvings and inscriptions showing that the different bastions were 
built at different times. 

Within the fort and overlooking the walls is an old stone 
church whose roof has long since fallen in. Within the fort is also 
a large cement-lined, stone cistern to hold water in case of siege. 
The Spanish inscriptions on the walls show that the fort was begun 
about 1720, though the mission there was established about 1620. 




THE SPANISH FORT AT TAY TAY. 



Lying about within the fort are a few large iron cannon that were 
doubtless used by the Spaniards in repulsing the attacks of the 
Moro pirates. It was for a refuge from these pirates that this 
old fort was built nearly two hundred years ago in this tiny, reef- 
protected harbor, on an island that even now is unknown to a large 
majority of American people although it is a part of our territory. 
On the shore, just back of the fort, is another stone church 
whose roof has also fallen in ; and back of this church is a small 
thatched bell tower with two very good bells of harmonious tones 
hanging in it. How long these bells have been silent it is difficult 



A VISIT TO TAY TAY. 



21 



to say, but no priest now remains to carry on the work begun nearly 
three hundred years ago by the brave padres from Spain, and not 
a Spaniard now Hves in that almost forgotten village. But for the 
moss-covered and still massive gray walls of the fort and the 
crumbling ruins of the two churches one would never imagine that 
this tiny village of brown men had ever been inhabited by subjects 
of the kingdom of Spain. 




CHURCH WITHIN THE FORT. 



In passing out of the harbor of Tay Tay we visited a small 
volcanic island of curiously weathered and water-worn limestone. 
Except for a narrow beach the sides of this island are almost per- 
pendicular, and the clififs are honeycombed with dozens of water- 
worn caves. Many of these caves are of great beauty, resembling 
the interiors of stone churches ; some extend far back into the dark 
interior of the island, others are lighted by openings at the top. 
Many of them are beautifully colored, and in an accessible region 



22 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



would doubtless be frequeutly visited by tourists, while in their iso- 
lated location it is possible that they had never before been visited 
by white men, unless in the old Spanish days. It is in these and in 
similar caves of this region that the natives obtain the edible birds' 
nests so highly prized by some, especially the Chinese. The natives 
are said to have claims on certain caves, and any one found stealing 
nests from another man's cave is supposedly dealt with as a thief. 




BELL-TOWER OF THE CHURCH OUTSIDE OF THE FORT. 



These curious nests are built by swifts (swallows) against the 
walls of the dark caves much in the some way as is done by our 
common chimney swifts, except that instead of cementing a number 
of sinall twigs together by a kind of sticky secretion or saliva, the 
entire nest is made of the sticky substance which dries into a sort 
of gummy mass. This substance has but little taste, and why the 
wealthy Chinese should be willing to pay such enormous prices ($12 
to $15 per pound) for it is hard to understand. 



A VISIT TO TAY TAY. 



23 



It is said that the first nest the bird makes in the season brings 
the highest price because it is of pure material ; this nest having 
been taken the bird builds another, but, having a diminished supply 
of the secretion, it introduces some foreign matter to help out, and 
this foreign matter, of course, makes the nest less valuable as food. 
A third nest may succeed the second, but it has still more foreign 
matter to still further diminish its value. That the collection of the 
nests is attended with considerable danger is evident from the vert- 
ical, jagged walls of rock that must be scaled, either from below 
or above, to obtain them. 




ISLAND NEAR TAY TAY WHERE EDIBLE BIRDS' NESTS ARE 

FOUND. 

To those of us who lead busy lives in the centers of what we 
call twentieth-century civilization, life in a place so isolated from 
the rest of the world as Tay Tay seems impossible. Yet the in- 
habitants of this barrio are quite contented and fairly comfortable. 
They live "the simple life" indeed. While their resources are 
exceedingly limited their needs and desires are correspondingly few. 
They never suffer from cold and probably not often from heat or 
hunger ; and they are not cursed with the ambitions that make so 
many of us dissatisfied with our lives. 



III. THE LEPER COLONY OF CULION. 

IT was early Sunday morning when the "Busuanga" dropped an- 
chor in the harbor of Culion Island, one of the Calamaines group 
of the Philippines, and two or three of us were fortunate enough 
to be invited to land, for an hour or so, to visit the leper colony 
that is said to be the largest in the world. 

We were met at the tiny dock by the physician-in-charge. Dr. 
Clements, and by him escorted about the colony. This physician, 
who has spent long years in these eastern lands, gives the immediate 
impression of a man of quiet force, and the work he is doing in this 
seldom-visited island is as fine a piece of missionary work, though 
carried on by the government, as can probably be found anywhere. 

Including the dock. a few acres of the island are fenced off, and 
into this enclosure the lepers are forbidden to enter ; otherwise they 
have the run of the island, but are not allowed boats for fear they 
would be used as a means of escape. 

Within the non-leprous enclosure are located the residences for 
the doctors and other officials ; the living quarters, kitchens etc. (all 
of concrete) for the non-leprous laborers ; and various shops and 
other such buildings. 

At the "dead line" fence between this and the leprous part of 
the island a Chinaman has a small store where the lepers can buy 
various articles such as may be seen in a small country store. The 
articles are in plain sight, but the leper is not allowed to touch 
anything until he has decided to take it; he then drops his money 
into a sterilizing solution and gets his purchase. A more modem 
store is being arranged by the government that will soon displace 
the Chino. 

Passing this minute store we entered the gate of the "for- 
bidden city," and, though there is no danger from merely breathing 
the same air with lepers, it gave us a rather strange sensation to be 
surrounded by thirty-four hundred poor wretches who in Biblical 
times would have been compelled to cry "Unclean ! unclean !" We, 



THE LEPER COLONY OF CULION. 



25 



of course, did not touch anything within the colony, though the 
doctors do not hesitate to touch even the lepers themselves. 

The colony proper is located on a small promontory looking 
eastward to the harbor and the Sulu Sea. At the end of this pro- 
montory is an old Spanish fort of stone with its enclosed church. 
Most of the Christian lepers are Roman Catholics, though there 
is a small Protestant church in the .colony, in charge of a leprous 
native minister. 




DOCTORS' RESIDENCES AND OTHER BUILDINGS OUTSIDE OF 
THE COLONY FENCE. 



The lepers are brought from the various islands of the Philip- 
pines to this colony so fast that it is with great difficulty that they 
can be accommodated ; but all are made comfortable, in fact much 
more comfortable, in most cases, than they would ever have been 
at home. Except for homesickness, which cannot, of course, be 
avoided, they are quite happy, or as happy as any hopelessly sick 
people can be away from home and friends. 

Fine concrete dormitories are supplied, but many prefer to 
build their own native houses of nipa palm and bamboo. A certain 
amount of help is given the lepers in building these houses on con- 



26 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



dition that they first obtain a permit and build in the proper place 
in relation to the streets that have been laid out. 

Besides the dormitories there are several concrete kitchen 
buildings where the lepers can prepare their food in comfort. 

A plentiful supply of pure water is distributed by pipes to 
various convenient parts of the colony, and several concrete bath 
and wash houses are conveniently located. A concrete sewage sys- 
tem leads all sewage to the sea. 




CONCRETE DORMITORY AND NATIVE SHACKS. 



In this tropical climate it is, of course, unnecessary to provide 
any means of heating the buildings. At the time of our visit a 
large amusement pavilion was nearly completed where moving pic- 
tures and other forms of entertainment will help pass the time for 
these poor wretches who have nothing to look forward to but a 
lingzring death from a loathsome disease. 

A large number of the patients who are in the incipient stages 
showed, to the ordinary observer, no effects of the disease. There 
were others who at first glance seemed perfectly normal, but on 
closer scrutiny revealed the absence of one or more toes or fingers. 
Others had horribly swollen ears ; some had no nose left and were 



THE LEPER COLONY OF CULION. 



27 



distressing objects ; but it was not until we visited the various wards 
of the hospital that we saw leprosy in all of its horror. Here were 
dozens of cases so far advanced that they were no longer able 
to walk ; they were lying on their cots waiting for death to come 
to their release. Some were so emaciated as to look almost like 
animated skeletons. Others, except for and sometimes in spite of 
their bandages, looked like horrid, partially decomposed cadavers. 
It was a sight to make one shudder and devoutly hope that a cure 
for this awful disease may soon be discovered. These extreme 



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CONCRETE KITCHEN AND LAVATORY BUILDINGS AND NATIVE 

RESIDENCES. 



cases are cared for carefully and their last hours are made as com- 
fortable as possible. 

As we came out three Catholic sisters entered the women's 
ward to do what they could for the patients there. 

Shortly before leaving the colony we were led to a small con- 
crete structure (near the furnace where all combustible waste is 
burned), and as the door was opened we saw before us on a con- 
crete slab four bodies so wasted and shrivelled that they seemed 
scarcely human. These were those who had at last been cured in 



28 WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 

the only way that this dread disease admits of cure. About forty 
per month are released by death, and those we saw were the last 
crop of the here merciful not "dread reaper." 

At the back of the colony we met four lepers of incipient stages 
carrying a long box on their shoulders. Just as they came abreast 
of us they set it down, to rest themselves, and we saw that in the 
box was another "cured" leper. He was being carried to the ceme- 
tery not only "unhonored and unsung" but also "unwept" : not a 
single friend nor relative followed his wasted body to its final 
resting place. After this pitiful spectacle, added to the horrors of 
the hospital wards, we were not sorry to turn our steps back toward 
the boat. As we passed through the fence at the "dead line," going 
away from the colony, we were compelled to wade through a shallow 
box of water containing a small percentage of carbolic acid which 
disinfected the soles of our shoes, the only things about us that 
had come in actual contact with the leper colony. In this way all 
visitors when they leave the colony are compelled, not to "shake its 
dust from their feet" but to wash its germs from their soles. 

As an antidote for dissatisfaction with one's lot in life, or as 
an object lesson for the pessimists who claim there is no unselfish- 
ness in the world, or as an illustration of the value of the medical 
missionary, this little island, lying "somewhere east of Suez" be- 
tween the Sulu and the China Seas, is not easily surpassed. 



IV. FROM ZAMBOANGA TO SINGAPORE. 

WHEN the North German Lloyd steamer "Sandakan" left the 
dock at Zamboanga she had in the first cabin only three pas- 
sengers, a Russian of uncertain occupation, a young lieutenant of 
the Philippine constabulary, and myself. We had, therefore, the 
pick of the deck staterooms, which is worth while when traveling 
within ten degrees of the equator in mid-summer. 

Zamboanga is the chief city of the island of Mindanao and is 
the capital of the turbulent Moro province, which includes the well- 
known island of Sulu with its once-famous sultan. 

After a night's run we tied up at the dock of Jolo, the chief 
town of the island of Sulu. Here my two companions left the ship, 
so that until we reached the next port, Sandakan, I was the only 
cabin passenger, and when the ship's officers were prevented by 
their duties from appearing at the table I had the undivided atten- 
tion of the chief steward, two cooks, and three waiters. This line 
of vessels being primarily for freight the "Sandakan" has accommo- 
dations for less than twenty first-cabin passengers, and it probably 
seldom has anything like a full list on this out-of-the-way run from 
"Zambo" to Singapore. So far as its accommodations go, however, 
they are excellent, and a pleasanter trip of a week or ten days would 
be hard to find, in spite of the tropical heat. 

While the first cabin list was so small, the third class accom- 
modations seemed taxed to their utmost, and the conglomeration of 
orientals was an unending source of amusement. They slept all over 
their deck and appeared happy and comfortable in spite of the fact 
that they seemed never to remove their clothes nor to bathe ; it is 
probable that to most of them ten days without such luxuries was 
not' a noticeable deprivation. 

Leaving Jolo, a picturesque walled city with a reputation for 
dangerous A^oros (one is not supposed to go outside the walls with- 
out an armed guard, and many men carry a "45" at their hip at all 
times), we sailed southwest through the countless islands of the 



30 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



Sulu Archipelago, and after a run of about twenty hours passed 
the high red cHff at the entrance to the harbor of Sandakan, the 
capital of British North Borneo, and were soon alongside the dock. 
Sandakan is a rather pretty little town of two or three thousand 
inhabitants, including about fifty white people. It extends along 
the shore for about a mile and in the center has the athletic or 
recreation field, that is found in all these little towns, as well as 
the post office and other government buildings. In this central part 
of the town are also the Chinese stores, usually dirty, ill-smelling 




THE WATER FRONT AT SANDAKAN. 



and unattractive ; but there are no others. In all this region the 
Chinese seem to have a complete monopoly of the commercial busi- 
ness. 

A hundred yards or more from the shore the hills rise steeply 
trom sea-level to a few hundred feet, and over these hills are scat- 
tered the attractive bungalows of the- white residents. There is also 
here a handsome stone church, overlooking the bay, with a school 
for native boys in connection with it. The hills farther from the 
town are heavily wooded, and the timber is being sawed at mills 
along the shore road. On the streets are seen men of several 



FROM ZAMBOANGA TO SINGAPORE. 



31 



nationalities, Chinese, Malays, Moros, East Indians, and occasionally 
a Caucasian in his customary white suit and pith helmet ; but of 
all these the most dignified and stately is the Indian policeman. He 
is tall and slender, with frequently a fine black beard ; his head is 
covered with the usual white turban, set off with a touch of red. 
His gray spiral puttees generally do not quite reach the bottom of his 
khaki trousers, thus leaving his knees bare. Hanging from his belt 
is his club, similar to those carried by American policemen, and 
jangling in one hand is usually a pair of steel handcuffs. In passing 
white men he often raises his hand in a formal military salute 




SANDAKAN FROM THE HILL. 
The "Sandakan" at the Dock. 



that would be worthy of a major general. Altogether he is a most 
impressive personage and, with such examples constantly before 
them, it would seem incredible that the citizens should ever cause 
a disturbance. An interesting contrast was seen in a group of men, 
sitting idly in the shade and watching eight little Chinese women 
stagger by with a huge tree trunk that would seem too heavy for an 
equal number of strong men to carry: but this is "East of Suez, 
where the best is like the worst," whatever Kipling meant by that. 
At Sandakan the first cabin passenger list was increased 100 
per cent by the advent of a young Danish rubber man- — not a man 



?>2 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



made of young Danish rubber, but a young Dane from Singapore 
who had been inspecting rubber plantations, of which there are many 
on Borneo. 

Leaving the capital city at sunset we arrived at Kudat, our next 
stopping place, early the next morning. With a very similar loca- 
tion this is a much smaller town than the preceding, consisting of 
four or five hundred people including half a dozen Caucasians. 
In spite of its small size it has a small garrison of native soldiers 
and the inevitable recreation ground. Besides this there is here 




BUNGALOW ON THE HILL, SANDAKAN. 



a race track at which a meet was about to be held. Attracted prob- 
ably by the races was the ubiquitous moving picture show, set up 
in a tent near the race track. It is impossible to escape the "movies." 
I attended a moving picture exhibition given in the cockpit of a 
small Philippine village about fifty miles out from Manila, and here 
was another in a still smaller village on the Island of Borneo, hun- 
dreds of miles from anyzvhere. In the same way it is impossible to 
escape the voice of the phonograph. On several occasions I have 
heard them in tiny nipa shacks in small Philippine villages, and in 



FROM ZAMBOANGA TO SINGAPORE. 



33 



a More shack in Kud^t, built on poles above the water, I heard 
the sound of what seemed a very good phonograph of some sort. 

In the northeast corner of Borneo is its highest mountain, Kini 
or Kina Balu, the Chinese Widow, supposedly so named because 
of the fancied resemblance of its jagged top to the upturned face 
of a woman. It is really a very impressive peak and, being seen 
from the sea, it looks its full height of nearly fourteen thousand 
feet ; being exactly under the sixth parallel it is, of course, too close 
to the equator to be snow-capped. Its position near the coast enabled 




CHINESE WOMEN CARRYING LOG, SANDAKAN. 



us to enjoy it as we approached the island from the northeast and 
as we passed around and down the west coast, so that it was visible 
for nearly three days. Other mountain peaks of five or six thou- 
sand feet are visible along the west coast but they appear insignifi- 
cant in comparison with old Kini Balu. 

Leaving Kudat in the evening we arrived at Jesselton the fol- 
lowing morning. This is a town of about the same size and char- 
acter of location as Kudat, but as the northern terminus of the only 
railroad on the island it seems much. more of a metropolis. It has 
a clock-tower, too, the pride of every Jesseltonian heart, located 



34 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 




CHINO CARRIER, SANDAKAN. 




RACE-COURSE AT KUDAT. 
Movie tent in the left background. 



FROM ZAMBOANGA TO SINGAPORE. 



35 



in plain view of the railroad station so that there is no excuse for the 
trains leaving Jesselton more than two or three hours late. There 
is here again the recreation field and market house, and, of course, 
the usual Chinese stores and Indian policemen ; besides this it is the 
home town of the Governor (an Englishman, of course) of British 
North Borneo. But the railroad is the chief feature of Jesselton. 
To be sure it is only a narrow gauge, but it carries people, if they 
are not in too big a hurry, and freight. The engines are of English 
type but the cars are — original, surely. There are first and third 




MORO SHACKS AT KUDAT. 
In one of these a phonograph was heard. 



class passenger coaches, no second class, to say nothing of a baggage 
"van." The third class cars have simply a rough wooden bench 
along each side and seat about twenty people. The first class cars 
are of two types: the first is like the third class with the addition 
of cushions to the seats and curtains to the windows ; the second 
kind is a sort of Pullman car; it is of the same size, but instead of 
the benches it has about half a dozen wicker chairs that may be 
moved about at will. 

Having a few hours to spare I decided to take a ride into the 
country. I had already climbed one of the hills where I could get 



36 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



a view inland to Kini Balu, over miles of jungle where no white 
man has ever been. But I wanted to see a little of this country, 
from the car-window at least. So I entered the station and inter- 
viewed the station master, a portly official of great dignity. He told 
me, in fair English, that the train on the "main line" had left for 
that day but that I could take a "local" out into the country for 
about three miles. This was better than nothing, so I climbed (and 
climb is the proper word) aboard the first class car of the local that 
was soon to start. I was the only first-class passenger and I felt 




HOSPITAL ON THE HILL, KUDAT. 



like a railroad president in his private car. Soon after starting 
the conductor entered. He was a tall and, of course, dignified 
East Indian in turban and khaki uniform. He had the punch with- 
out which no conductor would be complete, and, suspended from a 
strap over his shoulder, was a huge canvas bag, like a mail bag, 
the purpose of which puzzled me. The fare, he told me, was 
fifteen cents to the end of the line ; on giving him a twenty-cent 
piece I found the purpose of the canvas bag; it was his money bag, 
and he carefully fished from its depths my five cents change. The 
Borneo pennies are about as big as cart wheels so this bag was noi 



FROM ZAMBOANGA TO SINGAPORE. 



n 



SO out of proportion as it might seem. In exchange for my fare 
he gave me a ticket marked "fifteen cents," which he gravely 
punched. I did not know what the ticket was for as I thought there 
would hardly be a change of conductors in a run of three miles, 
but I kept it and in about five minutes the dignified conductor 
returned and gravely took up the ticket again ; this impressive per- 
formance was repeated on the return trip. 

After leaving the crowded (?) streets of the city our speed 
rapidly increased until we were traveling at a rate of not less than 




CLUB HOUSE AT JESSELTON. 



ten miles an hour, which was fast enough considering there were 
no airbrakes on the train of three cars, and we had to be ready to 
stop at any moment when somebody might want to get on or off. 
Doubtless the "flyers" on the main line of the British North Borneo 
State Railroad run at even greater speeds than this. The dignity 
of the officials of this miniature railroad was most interesting, and 
was almost equal to that of a negro porter on the Empire State 
Express. 

Leaving this railroad center early the next morning we arrived, 
before dark, at our last stop in Borneo, Labuan. We had added 



38 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



50 per cent to our cabin passenger list at Jesselton by taking aboard 
a young English engineer from South Africa. 

The Island of Labuan upon which the town of the same name 
is situated lies just off the northwest coast of Borneo. It came 
under the protectorate of Great Britain in 1846 and, though small, 
has a more up-to-date appearance than any of the other towns 
visited. The stores are mainly of concrete with red tile or red- 
painted corrugated iron roofs, which, among the tall coconut palms, 
are very attractive in appearance. There is one main street, parallel 
to the beach line, that is extended as a modern, oiled road for some 




PASSENGER TRAIN ON THE B. N. B. S. R. R. AT JESSELTON. 



miles into the country. Along this road are the very attractive 
official buildings, each with its sign in front ; also the recreation 
field and the residences of the few white inhabitants. All of the 
streets are clean and have deep cement gutters on the sides that 
lead to the sea or to the various lagoons that extend through the 
town. Water pipes also extend along the streets with openings at 
convenient intervals. Extensive coal mines are located near the 
town, but for some reason they were not profitable and the cars 
and docks for handling coal are now nearly all idle. On one of the 



FROM ZAMBOANGA TO SINGAPORE, 



39 



lagoons is a rather artistic Chinese temple of concrete, well built 
and in good repair. 

On the main street is a school, and, seeing a crowd of natives 
at the door, I joined the throng to see what was going on inside. 
It proved to be the singing hour, and about fifty little Chinese boys, 
from six to ten years of age, all in neat khaki uniforms, were sing- 
ing at the tops of their voices, led by a very active Chinese man. 
The little fellows seemed to enjoy the singing thoroughly, and, after 
hearing several songs, all in Chinese, of course, to strange and un- 
usual tunes, I was surprised to recognize one of the tunes — it was 




i I 




BORNEAN BOAT AT JESSELTON. 



"John Brown's body lies amoulding in the grave" — though what the 
words were I was unable to tell since, like the other songs, they were 
in Chinese. 

At Labuan the last of our cabin passengers came aboard, two 
Englishmen, one a mining engineer, the other a government man. 
Since no more stops were to be made in Borneo, the Sandakan 
headed in a southwest direction straight for Singapore, and in 
exactly three days we entered that busy harbor and dropped anchor 
among the more than two dozen other ocean liners from all parts 
of the world. 



40 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 




MAIN STREET AT LABUAN. 




POST OFFICE AND RECREATION GROUND AT LABUAN. 



FROM ZAMBOANGA TO SINGAPORE. 



41 



Singapore is' one of the busiest seaports in the world and the 
hundreds of vessels of all sizes and types against the background 
of handsome white and cream-colored buildings make a very inter- 
esting and impressive sight. 




CHINESE TEMPLE AT LABUAN. 



Thus ended a most interesting voyage of nine days, through a 
region seldom visited by any but a few Englishmen who are inter- 
ested in some way in the development of that, as yet, little developed 
part of the world. Although it is a trip that is easily arranged by 
visitors to the Philippines it is one that is seldom taken by the 
tourist. 



V. SINGAPORE, THE MELTING POT OF THE 

EAST. 

IN Singapore, it is said, can be seen more races of men than at any 
other one spot in the world, so that it has been well named "The 
Melting Pot of the East." It is also sometimes spoken of as "The 
Gateway of the East," since all vessels bound for ports in the Far 
East call there. 




HONGKONG BANK AND PUBLIC SQUARE. 

It is said, perhaps without sufficient historical evidence, that 
the town was first settled by Malays in 1360 A. D. ; but as a port 
of any importance its history begins in 1819 when it was ceded by 



SINGAPORE^ THE MELTING POT OF THE EAST. 



43 





A 


; ■- 


B^S^i^Ai 


'<" 




.mwti^fc-- 




^pp 

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k^ 






>'■ 


: ■ > 


IHIIh^ ''''Hv 


ki)':.^ 


t-sOr^-. A ' 






pi:-- ajg 


}m 


■T''^ 


jPT 1 


'.'^^^^■■■'E^^ 


mDT 1 


m 


1* 


1^ 


fc^- 


I^SL^I 


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1 .' '.flul^lKk''**'^ 




f 


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A CHINESE RESIDENCE STREET. 




A SUBURBAN RESIDENCE. 



44 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



Jahore to Great Britain through the instrumentahty of Sir Stamford 
Raffles, whose name is perpetuated in connection with many of the 
local institutions. 

In the early days, in fact until the introduction of steamships, 
there was much annoyance and danger from pirates at sea and 
robbers on land, but that of course is now long past and one is as 
safe here as in any other part of the world. 

The present-day Singapore is a thriving town of more than 
250,000 inhabitants, and is one of the busiest harbors in the world; 
more than three dozen sea-going steamships may sometimes be seen 
in the harbor at the same time, and the number of rowboats and 
other small craft is legion. 




VICTORIA MEMORIAL HALL AND SINGAPORE CRICKET CLUB. 



On landing one is fairly overwhelmed by the rickisha men, for 
the jinrikisha, the two-wheeled Japanese cart, is the method of 
travel in Singapore, though one may hire a pony wagon (ghari), 
or even an automobile at very reasonable rates. As to the electric 
cars, or "trams," the less said the better ; they would disgrace a city 
of one-tenth the size of Singapore. 

The streets are excellent and are nearly all level, so that the 
rickishas, usually pulled by Chinese, make good time. Many resi 
dents- own their own rickisha and hire the man by the month; 
more well-to-do people, and there are many wealthy people both 
native and foreign in Singapore, have their own teams and auto- 
mobiles. 



SINGAPORE, THE MELTING POT OF THE EAST. 45 

While there are regular rickisha stands in different parts of 
town, especially near the hotels and other public places, there are 
few streets so unfrequented that one cannot "pick up" a rickisha 
at a moment's notice. Umbrellas are scarcely needed, for in case 
of a shower one may call a rickisha to the curb and be whisked to 
his destination dryshod. In fact there is very little walking done 
in Singapore, especially by Europeans ; it is so easy to get into the 
ever-present and alluring rickisha. Moreover, it is very hot in the 
sun, for Singapore is only a little more than one degree from the 




THE SCOTCH KIRK. 

equator. There is a regular scale of prices for public vehicles, but 
the newcomer is always "spotted" .and is charged double or treble 
the regular fare until he learns better than to heed the pathetic or 
indignant protests of the rickisha men. 

Like other cities in the East Singapore is a mixture of beauty 
and squalor. In the region of the banks, steamship offices, and 
wholesale houses there are many handsome buildings; but in the 
Chinese districts that make up the greater part of the business sec- 
tion, for the Chinese merchants far outnumber all others, there are 
narrow crowded streets, small houses, and large and variagated 




Y. M. C. A. BUILDING. 
Methodist Church in left background. 




ST. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE. 



SINGAPORE^ THE MELTING POT OF THE EAST. 



47 



smells. There is also a notorious and wide-open red-light district 
that is a disgrace to a modern and supposedly civilized town. 

While the saloon is not particularly in evidence the indulgence 
in stengahs (Malay for half), or whiskey and sodas, is well-nigh 
universal among the European population, not always excluding the 
women and clergy. Since alcohol is said to be particularly danger- 
ous in the tropics it would be interesting to know the total effect 
of this general indulgence. It is generally conceded that after a 
few years of tropical life Europeans must go home to recuperate; 
it would be interesting to know if the use of strong alcoholics bears 




PART OF A CHINESE FUNERAL PROCESSION. 



any relation to the frequency of these necessary trips to temperate 
regions. 

Certainly life seems easy and pleasant in Singapore, especially 
among government officials. About eight or nine o'clock in the 
morning a stream of rickishas, carriages and automobiles carries 
the men down town from their pleasant and often very handsome 
homes uptown or in the suburbs. Many of the finest of these 
homes are owned by wealthy Chinese merchants. About five in 
the afternoon the stream sets in the other direction, carrying those 



48 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



whose day's work is over back to their cool villas or to some recrea- 
tion ground where tennis, cricket, golf, or football may be enjoyed 
for an hour or two before dark. Dinner is usually between seven 
and eight and is over in time for evening entertainments which 
begin late. Although too far from the beaten tracks frequently to 
enjoy first-class dramatic talent, there are the ubiquitous "movies," 
and for the transient visitor the Malay and Chinese theaters are of 
great interest. 

An excellent race course provides entertainment of that sort 




PART OF A CHINESE FUNERAL PROCESSION. 



at frequent intervals. For the more serious-minded the extensive 
Raffles Museum and Library is centrally and beautifully located. 

The beautiful Anglican Cathedral is the largest church in the 
city, and many other denominations possess smaller but attractive 
churches. 

The central building of all is the beautiful Victoria Memorial 
Hall with its tall clock tower and chimes. In front of this white 
building is the black statue of an elephant, presented to the city 
by the king of Siam to commemorate the first visit ever paid to a 
foreign city by a Siamese monarch. In the neighborhood of the 



SINGAPORE, THE MELTING POT OF THE EAST. 



49 



Cathedral and Memorial Hall are the hotels, which are good in most 
respects but whose charges to transient guests are usually exorbi- 




A HINDU TEMPLE. 
Rickishas passing. 

tant ; here is also the main recreation field where cricket, tennis and 
football are played every afternoon by both natives and Europeans. 



50 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



While these churches, residences and parks (including the 
well-known botanical gardens) are interesting, it is the oriental 
element that has the greatest charm for those from other lands. 
A rickisha ride through the teeming streets of the Chinese or 
Malay quarters, especially at night, is most interesting. If taken 
during the day a Chinese funeral procession with its banners, bands 
and tom-toms may be met ; in fact the death-rate among the squalid 
Chinese residents is so high that funerals are of very frequent 
occurrence. 




THE MOSQUE AT JAHORE. 



At the docks and other gathering places one is fascinated by 
the constantly shifting sea of strange faces and costumes ; some- 
times the lack of costume is more noticeable than the costume, as 
among the coolies or laborers from India or Arabia. Chinese, 
Japanese, various races of Malays and East Indians, jostle elbows 
with Englishmen, Americans and every other race under the sun 
except perhaps, the American Indian. It is surely a motley throng 
and the tower of Babel was nowhere compared to this conglomera- 
tion of tongues. 



SINGAPORE^ THE MELTING POT OF THE EAST. 



51 



The oriental is a rather mild individual as a rule and wrangling 
and fighting is probably less common than among occidental com- 
munities. 

Several interesting temples are to be seen in Singapore ; their 
quaint architecture is always interesting to the occidental tourist, 
and the hideous images to be seen within will repay the trouble of 
removing one's shoes, which must be done before admittance is 
granted. 

When the sights of the city have been exhausted a visit to 
Jahore on the mainland (Singapore is on a small island) of the 




CANAL AND MARKET PLACE AT JAHORE. 



Malay Peninsula will be interesting. Here is the summer palace 
of H. H. the Sultan of Jahore ; also a large and handsome mosque. 
Here is also a wide-open gambling establishment where hundreds of 
Chinese may be seen playing "fantan." 

On the return from Jahore, if interested in such things, a 
visit to a rubber estate may be made, and the whole process in the 
manufacture of rubber may be seen in a few hours ; it is a strange 
and fascinating process and is, perhaps, the most important industry 
of the Federated Malay States. * 



52 WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 

It is interesting to compare Singapore which has been a British 
colony for nearly a century with Manila, a city of about the same 
size, that has been under American rule for less than two decades. 
The results that have been accomplished in the latter place along 
the lines of sanitation, education, and other civilizing influences 
should make an American proud of his native land. 



VI. HOW RUBBER IS MADE. 

ONE of the principal products of the Malay Peninsula is rubber. 
Like most people who have never happened to investigate the 
matter my ideas as to the way in which an automobile tire is ex- 
tracted from a tree were very hazy ; so, with another American, 
who had charge of a mission school in Singapore, I boarded the 
Jahore express on the F, M. S. R. R. (F. M. S. meaning Federated 
Malay States) and after a run of half an hour arrived at the Bukit 
Timar rubber estate some ten miles northwest of Singapore. 

The Bukit Timar is an up-to-date plantation of more than one 
hundred thousand trees, and here we saw the whole process, from 
tree to sheet rubber, as shipped to all parts of the world and sold 
by the pound. Rubber trees grow to a considerable size, but this 
being a young plantation most of the trees were not over six or 
eight inches in diameter. In the middle of the estate was a very 
attractive bungalow where lived the manager and his wife, a young 
English couple, and the former very courteously showed us about 
his place and explained the different processes. 

"Tapping" begins at daybreak, and all the juice or latex is 
collected before noon. Dozens of native and Chinese men and boys 
are employed in this process, some of the latter being so small that 
they can scarcely carry the two buckets of latex on the bamboo 
stick over the shoulder. 

In tapping, a very thin and narrow piece of bark is gouged off, 
just deep enough to make the tree bleed, but not deep enough to 
kill it ; so that by the time the bark on one side of the tree has been 
cut away that on the opposite side has had time to regenerate. The 
process is thus a perpetual one and the tree lasts indefinitely. 

The exact method of tapping varies, but usually it is begun as 
two slanting grooves that converge to form a V. The latex oozes 
from the freshly cut bark, runs down the converging grooves to 
their point of union, and is caught in a small glass cup or other 
vessel suspended under a tiny spout at the apex of the V. The 



54 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



method of tapping shown in the photograph is different from this 
somewhat, though the principle is the same. The latex that oozes 
from the grooves is a pure white, sticky fluid resembling milk ; about 
a tablespoonful is obtained each day from each tree. 

By the tim? each man has tapped or gouged all of the trees 
assigned to him (perhaps two or three hundred) the first-tapped 
trees have bled all they will for that day, so that collecting is begun 
at once. In each cup is a little water to prevent the latex from 
coagulating and sticking to the bottom. 




HOME.OF THE MANAGER OF THE BUKIT TIMAR RUBBER 
ESTATE NEAR SINGAPORE. 



The first V is cut several feet from the ground, and the amount 
that is gouged from each side of the V each day is so very thin 
that it will be months before the apex of the V reaches the ground, 
by which time the regeneration of the first cuts will be well under 
way. 

After the flow of latex has ceased for the day a narrow strip 
hardens along each groove, like gum on a cherry tree. These little 
strips of rubber, with bits of adherent bark, as well as any drops 
that may have fallen to the ground, are collected in bags and car- 



HOW RUBBER IS MADE. 



55 



ried to the factory to be made into sheets of cheap grades of com- 
mercial rubber. 




A YOUNG RUBBER TREE SHOWING ONE METHOD OF TAPPING. 

The white Hues are the latex running down the grooves into the glass cup at 
the bottom. Above the two slanting lines is seen the scarred tissue 
where the bark has beeen gouged away. When the lower end of the 
lower line reaches the ground the tree will be tapped on the opposite 
side. The amount of latex in the cup seems greater than it really is 
because of the water upon which it floats. The size of the tree may be 
judged from the kodak case at its foot. 

After the trees have been tapped the latex is collected in care- 
fully cleaned tin buckets, brought to the factory and strained into 
huge earthenware tubs. It is then put into enamelware pans about 
twelve by thirty-six inches in size and three inches deep, and a 



56 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



very weak acid (usually acetic) is stirred into it. In about half 
an hour the acid coagulates the latex (like rennet in making junket 
from milk) into a soft, pure white mass, about two inches thick 
and of the area of the pan. This soft mass of rubber is carefully 
floated out of the pan onto a table, where it is rolled on both sides 
for a few minutes with a wooden rolling-pin to squeeze out the 
excess of water and acid. It is then carefully lifted into a large 
vessel of pure water to harden until the next day. 




THREE LATEX GATHERERS. 
The boy in the middle of the group has the canvass bag over his shoulder in 
which he carries the scraps of dried rubber from the grooves on the 
trees. 

The next day it is run several times through smooth steel 
rollers under dropping water, where it is flattened out into sheets 
of about an inch or less in thickness and of a proportionately greater 
area. It is next passed through roughened steel rollers that mark 
it off into ridges and depressions like a waffle. 

These sheets, now tough and elastic, are hung in a closed cham- 
ber and smoked until they reach a proper shade of brown, when 
they are ready for shipment. The smoking process, which is to 
preserve the rubber, often takes many days, though at the time of 



HOW RUBBER IS MADE. 



57 



our visit the manager of the Bnkit Timar estate was experimenting 
with a method that would complete the smoking in a few hours. 

The production of rubber in the Malay Peninsula is of rather 
recent date and it has increased by leaps and bounds. In the various 
"booms" that have taken place many fortunes have been made — as 
witnessed by the palatial residences about Singapore — but many 
have also been lost, though the witnesses to these are not so evident. 




THE TRAVELER PALM, AN UNUSUAL TYPE OFTEN SEEN IN 
THE FAR EAST— SINGAPORE AND ELSEWHERE. 



Whether the increased demands for rubber will justify the thou- 
sands of young trees that are still being planted, not only on the 
Malay Peninsula but on Borneo and other islands of the Far East, 
remains to be seen ; but, judging from the opinions of several rubber 
experts of Singapore, this is quite doubtful. 



VII. TWO CHINESE CITIES. 

AFTER a voyage (unusually calm for the China Sea) of four 
>. days from Singapore, the S. S. "Biilow" slowly steamed among 
the islands at the entrance and came to anchor just after sunset 
in the beautiful harbor of Hongkong. There is really no city of 
Hongkong, though letters so directed will reach their destination, 
and even the residents of the city in whose harbor we were anchored 
would have spoken of living in Hongkong. The name "Hongkong" 
belongs to the small island, ten miles long by three wide, that lies 
about a mile from the mainland of China. Along the north or 
land side of this island lies the city of Victoria, with a population 
of 350,000, commonly known by the name of the entire island, 
Hongkong. 

Practically the whole island is occupied by mountains of a 
maximum height of about 1800 feet, so that the town has only a 
narrow strip of level ground along the beach and extends in scat- 
tered fashion to the very top of the ridge. 

As we came to anchor the twinkling lights of the streets and 
houses were just beginning to appear, and in a little while, when 
the short tropical twilight had changed to darkness, the shore line 
was a mass of lights which gradually became more scattered toward 
the hill-tops, where often a single light marked the location of some 
isolated residence. Across the harbor another smaller group of 
lights showed the position of Kowloon, a small seaport on the 
mainland and the southern terminus of the Kowloon and Canton 
Railroad. On the water between the two towns, really one great 
harbor, were thousands of lights, indicating the position of in- 
visible steamships, junks, tugs, launches and sampans. Most of these 
lights were stationary, showing that the vessels to which they 
belonged were at anchor, but some of them were in motion, and 
hardly had we come slowly to a standstill and dropped anchor 
before we were besieged by a swarm of launches and sampans all 
clamoring for passengers to take ashore. 



TWO CHINESE CITIES. 



59 



As is customary in the East, steamers usually anchor in the 
harbor at Hongkong at some distance from shore, so that the larger 
hotels, as well as Cook's Agency, have private launches to take 
passengers ashore. Since it was rather late to see anything of the 
town most of the cabin passengers preferred to remain on board 
for the night, and the view of the lights of the harbor and town as 
seen from the ship was well worth enjoying for one evening. 

The next morning we were able to see the meaning of the lights 
of the night before. The business part of the town, with its 
crowded Chinese sections and its fine municipal and office buildings, 
lies as a narrow strip along the shore, while struggling up the 




VIEW ON "THE PEAK" 



GOVERNOR'S RESIDENCE IN THE LEFT 
BACKGROUND. 



mountain side are the residences, churches, schools, etc. of the 
English and wealthy Chinese residents. On this mountain side is 
also a most beautiful and interesting botanical garden. On the 
highest point of "The Peak," as the main peak of the range is 
called, is a weather observatory and signal station, and from this 
point one of the most beautiful views in the world may be obtained ; 
to the south, the open China Sea, with numberless green islands 
extending almost to the horizon ; to the north, the mainland of 
China, fringed with low mountains ; between the mainland and the 
island the long, narrow strait forming the harbors of Victoria 
and Kowloon ; at the foot of the mountain the densely crowded 



60 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



business streets ; and extending up the almost precipitous northern 
slopes of the mountain the beautiful, often palatial homes of the 
wealthy residents. Winding along the mountain sides a number 
of fine roads and paths give access to these homes, but to reach 
the higher levels, especially, there may be seen the cable tramway, 
going so straight up the side of the mountain that it is almost 
alarming to look forward or back from the open cars. The homes 
nearer the foot of the mountain are usually reached by means 
of sedan chairs carried by two, three or even four coolies, while 




CHINESE JUNKS IN THE HARBOR OF CANTON. 



in the level business section the usual means of travel are the 
electric cars and the ever-ready rickishas. Horses are practically 
unknown except for racing purposes ; carts are pulled by Chinese 
coolies instead of by horses, and merchandise is carried by coolies 
in baskets or bales on the shoulders. It is an interesting though 
unpleasant sight to see strings of Chinese men and women toiling 
up the steep sides of the mountain, carrying stones, cement, window 
frames, timbers, and all other material used in building the palaces 
in which the wealthy people live. For a day of this back-breaking 
labor they are paid about what one of their rich employers would 



TWO CHINESE CITIES. 



61 



give for one of his best cigars. Every stick, stone and nail in all 
of these houses has been carried up all these hundreds of feet on 
the backs of men and women, chiefly the latter. 

In a beautiful little level valley between the bases of two of 
the mountains is the play ground of Hongkong, known as "Happy 
Valley" ; here are tennis courts, a golf course, etc. overlooked on 
either side, rather incongruously, by a Chinese and a Christian 
burial ground. 

Having visited the various points of interest about Hongkong, 
which is really a part of the British Empire (ceded by the Chinese 
in 1841) though a vast majority of its residents are Chinese, I 
decided to have a look at a real Chinese city. Canton, located about 
ninety miles up the Canton River. As Canton happened to be in 
the throes of a revolution at that time, people were flocking by the 
thousands from there to Hongkong. Cook's Agency was warning 
people to keep away, and Hongkong papers had as headlines 
"Serious Outlook in Canton" ; but I did not expect ever to have 
another chance to visit this typical Chinese city, so I boarded one 
of the boats of the French line that left Hongkong late in the 
evening for the run up the river. I learned later that one of these 
boats had been "shot up" a few days before by the revolutionists, 
and that a number of the passengers had been killed. However 
we were not molested, and reached Canton about eight the next 
morning. 

After daylight we were able to get an idea of the country on 
either bank of the muddy river ; it was low and marshy, every acre 
being planted in rice. Occasionally, on a slight elevation, would 
be seen a pagoda-shaped temple, standing lonely among the rice 
fields, where doubtless it had stood for many centuries. 

At frequent intervals we passed small native boats, some of 
them with sails and loaded with goods, most of them rowed by one 
or more oars. It was to be noticed that when there was only one 
oar it was being worked vigorously by a woman, while a man sat 
comfortably in the stern and steered. These people were evidently 
going from the crowded villages in which they lived to work in 
the rice fields. 

At Canton the river, which is there only a few hundred yards 
wide, was jammed with craft of all kinds, including one or two 
small war vessels and hundreds, probably thousands, of sampans. 
The latter carry passengers and small quantities of freight ; they 
are roofed over more or less completely and serve as the homes of 



62 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



the owners' families, all the members of which take a hand in the 
rowing:. 




The foreign (mostly English and French) quarter of Canton 
is known as "the Shameen" (meaning sand-bank), a small island 



TWO CHINESE CITIES. 63 

in the river connected with the city proper by a couple of bridges. 
It has beautifully shaded streets and fine houses, and is utterly 
different from the Chinese Canton. At the Shameen's one hotel, 
which charges the modest rate of from four to eight dollars per 
day for very ordinary service, I was told that conditions were "very 
uncertain" and that nobody was allowed to enter the walled city 
after 9 P. M. without a pass. 




A WIDE STREET IN CANTON. 

A guide having thrust his services upon me before I could get 
off the boat, we left the Shameen, crossed one of the bridges and 
plunged into the network of streets where, without a guide, a 
stranger would be lost in a few minutes. 

In a few of the streets outside of the walled city rickishas are 
the usual means of travel, but inside the walls most of the streets 
are too narrow for rickishas to pass one another, and paving of 
large flagstones is too rough for wheels, so that the sedan chair 



64 WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT, 

is the only means of locomotion except one's own legs, My self- 
appointed guide said he would get chairs for seven dollars per day 
($3.00 in American money) but I told him I expected to walk and 
that if he wanted to go with me he would have to do likewise ; he 
immediately professed to think that walking was the only way to 
go, so we agreed to see the town afoot. After we had walked 
pretty briskly for three or four hours he inquired meekly, "Can 
you walk this way all day?" People in the tropics are not usually 
fond of walking, but Ping Nam was "game" and made no further 
remarks about my method of locomotion. Some of the less fre- 
quented streets where there were no sun-screens overhead were very 
hot, but in the busy streets the sun was almost excluded by bamboo 
screens and by the walls of the houses on each side, so that the 
heat was not nearly so oppressive as might be expected in so terribly 
congested a city. Many of these streets were so narrow that a 
tall man could touch the houses on each side with outstretched 
hands. 

On each side were stores of all sorts with open fronts with 
gay signs and with gayly colored goods on display, making a picture 
of wonderful fascination and everchanging interest. 

Although we wandered for hour after hour through a perfect 
wilderness of such streets we saw not a single white person ; it 
seemed as though I were the only Caucasian among the more than 
a million Asiatics, though this, of course, was not actually the case. 

In the busier streets the crowds filled the space from wall to 
wall, so that when a string of coolies came along, bearing burdens 
in the usual manner from a stick over the shoulder and humming the 
cheerful though monotonous "get-out-of-the-way" tune, we had 
to step aside, close against or into some store to let them pass ; and 
when an occasional chair came along it swept the entire traffic 
aside as a taxi might in a crowded alley of an American city. 

In spite of the density of the population the people all seemed 
happy and contented ; even the little children with faces covered 
with sores, as was often the case, appeared cheerful, and ran and 
played like other children. 

In the stores the people could be watched at work of all kinds, 
from blacksmithy to finest filigree silver work inlaid with the tiny 
colored feathers of the brightly colored kingfisher ; and from rough 
carpenter work to the finest ivory carving for which the Chinese 
are famous. Of course the amount they pay for some of this work 
of extreme skill is ridiculously small, yet their living expenses are 



TWO CHINESE CITIES. 



65 



so small that they are doubtless in better circumstances than many 
of the workers in our larger cities. 

The silk-weavers, working at their primitive looms in crowded 
rooms, excite one's sympathy more than most of the other workers, 
though they too seemed to be quite cheerful over their monotonous 
tasks. 

Through these crowded streets we wandered, the sight of a 
white man and a camera exciting some interest, though not a great 
deal. Canton is said to have been the scene of more outrages of 




COURT OF AN ANCESTRAL TEMPLE IN CANTON. 



one sort or another than any other city in the world, but in spite 
of the fact that a revolution was supposed to be in progress we saw 
no signs of disorder. There were soldiers and armed policemen 
everywhere, and groups of people were frequently seen reading 
with interest proclamations posted at various places ; what the nature 
of the proclamations was I was, of course, not able of myself to 
learn, and Ping Nam did not seem to care to enlighten me, possibly 
thinking he might scare me out of town and thus lose his job. 

Occasionally stopping to watch some skilful artisan at work or 
to make some small purchase, we went from place to place visiting 



66 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



temples and other objects of especial interest. Some of these tem- 
ples are centuries old, others are comparatively new. Some are 
comparatively plain, others like the modern Chun-ka-chi ancestral 
temple, which is said to have cost $750,000 "gold," are wonderfully 
ornate, with highly colored carvings and cement mouldings. Others 
are of interest chiefly because of the hideous images they contain ; 
one of these has hundreds of these idols and is hence known as the 
"Temple of the Five Hundred Genii." 




ENTRANCE OF THE "TEMPLE OF THE FIVE HUNDRED GENU," 

CANTON. 



After visiting several of these temples and the picturesque 
flowery pagoda we set out for the famous water clock that is said 
to have been built more than thirteen hundred years ago. It is now 
located in a dark little room in the top of an old house and is 
reached by a winding flight of outside stone stairs. It consists of 
four large jars of water, one above the other, so that the water may 
run slowly, at a definite rate, from the upper to the lower jars, and 
gradually raise, in the lowest jar, a float with an attached vertical 
scale that tells the time. In the window visible from the street 
below signs are placed at intervals that tell the time indicated by the 
clock. 



TWO CHINESE CITIES. 



67 



From the water clock we visited the ancient "City of the Dead," 
a small cemetery just outside one of the old city gates. These gates, 
some of which are large and imposing, pierce the dilapidated wall 
at intervals. The wall, about six miles in circumference, is sur- 
rounded by the remains of a moat, now chiefly useful as an addition 
to the picturesque landscape and as a breeding place for mosquitoes. 
The top of a city gate, reached by a winding stone stairway from 
within, is a convenient place from which to view the densely 
crowded roofs of the adjacent part of the city. .,.. 




THE FLOWERY PAGODA, CANTON. 



From the "City of the Dead" we made for the fairly wiae 
street along the river front ; here we took rickishas, much to the 
relief of my tired guide, to say nothing of my tired self, and were 
soon at the Canton terminus of the K. & C. R. R. The station 
was thronged with people waiting for the Kowl'oon express. 

The road-bed of the K. & C. R. R. is excellent, and the cars 
and engine, all of English make, made a very respectable appearance. 

For nearly half of the distance to Kowloon I had my section 
of the one first-class car to myself, as I was the only Caucasian on 
the train ; then an English civil engineer and his family came aboard 



68 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



and shared my compartment for the rest of the way. The second- 
and third-class cars, of which there were half a dozen or more, 
were crowded with natives, with boxes and bundles of all sorts 
and sizes. 




A CITY GATE AND PARTS OF THE WALL AND MOAT, AS SEEN 
FROM THE "CITY OF THE DEAD," CANTON. 



■ After making the run of about ninety miles in something less 
than three hours we reached the ferry at Kowloon, and in a quarter 
of an hour more we were again in Hongkong, as different from 
Canton as though it were on the other side of the world instead 
of being only three hours away. 



VIII. MEANDERINGS IN MODERN MANILA. 

MANILA, after twenty years of American control, is a fasci- 
nating mixture of past and present ; of romance and commer- 
cialism ; of oriental ease and occidental hustle. 

Enter through one of the beautiful old city gates, say the Santa 
Lucia, which bears the date 1781, and one finds himself in the old 
or walled city, Intramuros, still very Spanish in its appearance, 
though the government offices and other public buildings are here 
located. The massive gray stone wall, started in the early part of 
the seventeenth century, was originally surrounded by a moat, with 
drawbridges. It is said that a very efficient American official once 
suggested the desirability of having the wall whitewashed ; for- 
tunately his idea was not carried out. 

In contrast to the comparative quiet of the narrow streets of 
the Intramuros the docks along the Pasig River, that flows through 
the heart of the town, present a scene of bustle and confusion 
worthy of a city of its size, some 300,000 inhabitants. Here may 
be seen vessels of all sorts, from all parts of the world : steamships, 
junks, tugs, rowboats, and cascos, the last being the name given the 
native barge for carrying freight. The casco is covered by a roof 
of matting, made in sliding sections, with a cabin in the stern where 
the family of the owner lives. 

While there is an excellent electric street railway system and 
plenty of automobiles to be had, the common method of getting 
about is to 'phone for, or to hail, a passing one-horse vehicle, of 
which there are three distinct types charging different fares for the 
same service ; the more expensive vehicles are, however, more com- 
fortable and have better horses. Like the taxi-driver of New York 
or the rickisha-man of Singapore the driver of the caratella or 
caramata will charge all the traffic will bear, and it is well for the 
newcomer to inquire of an old resident what the proper fare for a 
given distance is before starting. 



70 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



The typical vehicle for hauling freight is the low, two-wheeled 
cart, drawn by the slow-moving, long-horned carabao or water 
bufifalo, one of the most characteristic animals of the islands. This 
beast is well-named, since it delights to lie buried in a muddy pool 
of water, with just its head above the surface. It may be seen in 
the larger lakes, swimming or wading in the deeper waters at a dis- 




SANTA LUCIA GATE. 
One of the entrances to the Walled City. Erected 1781. 



tance from the shore. In the cities it is a quiet, peaceful brute that 
one brushes against without a thought, but in the country, where 
is browses in the open fields, it behooves the white man to be very 
circumspect as he passes in its neighborhood, for it seems to have 
an aversion to the Caucasian race and will frequently charge in a 
very unpleasant, not to say dangerous, way. It is said that the 
carabao never shows this hostility toward the natives. A peculiar- 



MEANDERINGS IN MODERN MANILA. 



71 



ity of the law is such that should a man shoot a dangerous carabao 
to protect his own life he would have to pay for the animal he 
killed. 

Of course for small amounts of freight, in Manila as in all 
places in the Orient, the ubiquitous Chinese coolie is the usual 
means of transportation, and with a huge load at each end of a 
bamboo pole across his shoulder he shambles along with a curious 
gait, between a walk and a run, that he seems capable of sustaining 
for an almost indefinite time. 




PART OF THE WALL OF THE WALLED CITY. 
Seen from the outside. 



The "Chino" of course is the merchant of Manila as of all the 
cities of this part of the world. The main shopping street, the 
Escolta, is fairly lined with Chinese stores of all sorts, some of 
them quite extensive ; and some of the narrower side streets, in 
the same neighborhood, have practically no other stores than those 
kept by the Chinese. It is wonderfully interesting to wander about 
these narrow, winding streets, and into the dark, sometimes ill- 
smelling stores, but one should early learn the gentle art of "jewing 
down" the prices that are first asked for goods that are ofifered for 
sale. The Oriental always asks much more than he is willing or 



72 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



even eager to accept. Yoii ask the price of a garment, say, and 
are told "Two pesos" ; you shake your head and say "Too much" ; 
"Peso and half" will then be tried : you again say "Too much" and 
perhaps turn as though to leave the shop; "How much you give?" 




says the crafty merchant ; "One peso," perhaps you suggest ; "Take 
it," says the eager merchant as he hands you an article that should 
probably sell for half the amount paid. You leave the store feeling 
good over having gotten ahead of the crafty Oriental, and he prob- 
ably chuckles to himself over having cheated the rich American. 



MEANDERINGS IN MODERN MANILA. 



73 




A CARAMATA. 
The taxi of the lower classes in Manila. 




A CARABAO AND CART. 



74 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



Most of the shopping is done in the morning or late in the 
afternoon. For several hours, during the heat of the day, many 
of the stores are closed while the proprietors enjoy a midday 
lunch and siesta. 




CO 

< 

O 
H 

O 

H 

W 
Q 

< 

< 

P-. 



When tired of shopping or sight-seeing one may wander into 
a nearby church or rest in some public park or square, such as the 
Plaza de Santo Tomas. Many of these old squares are exceedingly 
picturesque and attractive. 

The different sections of the city are given distinct names, as 
though they were separate towns, but they are separated by imagi- 



MEANDERINGS IN MODERN MANILA. 



75 



nary lines only. In one of the more residential of these sections is 
the great Manila General Hospital, an up-to-date, modern plant; 
nearby is the main part of the University of the Philippines, whose 
students, it is said, compare quite favorably with the average college 
students of America. In this same neighborhood is also the main 
part of the Philippine Bureau of Science, where trained chemists, 
geologists, botanists, zoologists, bacteriologists, engineers, and other 
scientific experts are engaged in numerous lines of investigation of 
importance to the welfare of the islands. Most of these experts 
have, in the past, been drawn from the United States, as have the pro- 




MAIN BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES. 



fessors in the University. Just what will be the condition of affairs 
in these high-grade institutions when the islands are entirely under 
native control is somewhat problematic. 

While the hotels are not numerous in Manila one may secure 
the best of modern service by going to the Manila Hotel, down on 
the water-front, just off the great promenade and playground known 
as the Lunetta, where everybody goes at night to see everybody 
else and to listen to the band. Or one may see more of the native, 
especially the Spanish, life of the town by stopping at the Hotel 
de Spain, in the heart of the town, just off the Escolta. Here one 



76 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



may be quite, if not luxuriously, comfortable at a much more rea- 
sonable rate, and may enjoy watching the Spanish and other foreign 
guests of the hotel instead of the usual crowd of military and other 
well-dressed Americans that frequent the Manila Hotel. 

Although the population of Manila largely adheres to the 
Roman Catholic Church, many of the Protestant denominations 




MAIN BUILDING OF THE PHILIPPINE BUREAU OF SCIENCE. 



have churches of their own, and a flourishing Y. M. C. A., with a 
fine, modern building, is available for the men of the city. 

Life in such a town is certainly very attractive, and there is 
a charm about the place that makes one wish to return ; but it is a 
long, long way from home and from many of the things that may 
be had only in the greater countries of Europe and America. 



IX. A PACIFIC PARADISE, HONOLULU. 

THE long voyage to or from the Orient is delightfully interrupted 
by the stop at Honolulu, capital of the Hawaiian Islands, about 
2,100 miles southwest of San Francisco. This interesting group 
of volcanic islands named in 1778 by their discoverer, Jas. Cook, 
the Sandwich Islands after the Earl of Sandwich, then Lord of the 
British Admiralty, is said to be the most isolated group of inhabited 
islands in the world. It is possible that the real discoverer of the 
islands was not Jas. Cook, but a Spanish seaman named Juan Gae- 
tano, who sighted them in 1555. Cook and his men were treated 
as supernatural beings and worshiped by the superstitious natives 
as gods, until the death of one of the sailors showed that they were 
mere mortals ; and in 1779, by their overbearing conduct, the Eng- 
lishmen came into conflict with the irate natives and Jas. Cook was 
killed. "His body was taken to a heiau or temple; the flesh was 
removed from the bones and burned, and the bones were tied up 
with red feathers and deified. Parts of the body were recovered, 
however, and committed to the deep with military honors, and a 
part of the bones were kept in the temple of Lono and worshiped 
until 1819, when they were concealed in some secret place. A monu- 
ment erected by his fellow countrymen now marks the place where 
he fell on the shores of Kealakekua." 

In 1893 the queen was deposed and a provisional government 
was established, to be succeeded, in 1894, by the Republic of Hawaii. 
In 1900, by an act of Congress, the Hawaiian Islands became a 
territory of the United States. Of the one hundred and ninety and 
odd thousands of inhabitants of the islands, in 1910, nearly eighty 
thousand were Japanese. The native Hawaiians come next in point 
of numbers and are the most interesting people to the average 
tourist. Though dark-skinned, they are quite different in appear- 
ance from the negro, and many of the young men and women are 
decidedly good-looking. 



78 



WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 



As the vessel enters the beautiful harbor, with the city of 
Honolulu spread out along the shore and the mountains rising ab- 
ruptly in the immediate background, the well- formed young men 
and boys are seen alongside in the water or in native boats, ready 
to dive for the coins that the passengers seem always ready to 
throw to them. These amphibious people, like most of those in the 
tropics, are perfectly at home in the water and seem never to tire, 
no matter how far they may go to meet the incoming vessels, as 
they slowly wind their way through the tortuous channels among 
the treacherous coral reefs. 




DIAMOND HEAD, A FORTIFIED EXTINCT VOLCANO. 
At the entrance to the harbor of Honolulu. 



To the south of the entrance to the harbor, which it guards 
with batteries of concealed cannon and mortars, is the extinct vol- 
canic mountain known as Diamond Head, shown from the land 
side in the picture. A grass-covered, bowl-shaped crater of perhaps 
half a mile diameter may be entered through a tunnel on the land 
side, where Fort Ruger is situated. The rim of the crater, which 
is only a few hundred feet high, may be easily scaled and in most 
places affords easy walking and a fine view of the harbor. In the 
higher portion of the rim, seen in the right of the photograph, is 



A PACIFIC PARADISE, HONOLULU. 79 

a heavy battery of big guns, concealed in passages in the soHd rock, 
that could probably protect the entrance of the harbor below from 
any ordinary fleet. Visitors are not allowed to see these rock- 
hidden batteries, whose existence would never be suspected from the 
smooth, apparently unbroken surface of the rock as seen from the 
harbor. 

Like many other beautiful places, Hawaii is said to have the 
"most perfect climate in the world." Add to this wonderful climate 
and beautiful scenery, of sea and mountains combined, the fact that 
there is supposed to be not a snake nor a poisonous plant nor an 
insect worse than bees in all the islands, it would seem that this is 
truly a paradise, without even the serpent to cause trouble. 

For the tourist there are excellent hotels and all the conve- 
niences of a continental city, and amusements of sufficient variety 
to suit the most blase. For those who are merely stopping ofif for 
a day on the way to or from more distant ports it is hard to decide 
which of the many interesting places to visit. If it be his first visit, 
the mere city streets with the royal palms and other magnificent 
trees, the stores, the cosmopolitan crowds and other strange sights 
and sounds will be fascinating. A drive to the Punchbowl, the Poli, 
or more distant points, may be taken in a few hours, while if in- 
terested in natural history the gorgeous fishes and other marine forms 
to be seen at the Aquarium will be a revelation to one accustomed 
only to the life of the temperate zone. 

At the Bishop Museum the natural history, ethnology, etc., of 
the islands may be studied in a synoptic form. It is here that the 
famous war-cloak of Kamehameha I is on exhibition. It is a truly 
wonderful garment, four feet long, with a spread of ten feet or 
more at the bottom. It is made of the yellow feathers of the mama 
bird, and when it is realized that each bird furnishes but two small 
tufts of feathers, one under each wing, it will be imagined how 
many thousands of these small birds were sacrificed to make this 
one robe. It is valued at $150,000. It is carefully protected from 
dust and light but is exhibited to visitors to the museum. 

In the cool of the evening, when tired from a day of sight- 
seeing, the traveler may listen to the Honolulu Band, on some public 
square. It is composed of native musicians, but the instruments 
are those of the ordinary American brass band, and but for the 
cosmopolitan' character of the audience one might imagine himself 
in a city of southern California or some other subtropical part of 
the United States. 



80 WANDERINGS IN THE ORIENT. 

Besides having the most equable dimate in the world Honolulu 
claims the most perfect bathing-resort on earth, Waikiki Beach. 
The water is certainly all that could be desired, but the not in- 
frequent sharp masses of coral that project up through the white 
sand of the otherwise perfect beach are decidedly objectionable, 
and the writer cut a gash in his foot, by stepping on one of these 
pieces of coral, that was many days in healing. 




ROYAL PALMS, HONOLULU. 

Another of the points of interest in the city is the Royal Mau- 
soleum, where are the bodies of many of the royalty of the Hawaiian 
dynasties. The Hawaiian alphabet consists of but twelve letters, 
and the preponderance of vowels in many words seems remarkable 
to an English-speaking person. For example one of the bodies in 
the Royal Mausoleum is that of "Kaiminaauao, sister of Queen 
Kalakaua" ; it will be noticed that eight of the eleven letters in this 



A PACIFIC PARADISE, HONOLULU. 81 

name are vowels. In this Mausoleum doubtless now rest the remains 
of Liliuokalani, the last queen of Hawaii, who was deposed in 1893 
for attempting to force a less liberal constitution upon the people. 
She married an American and twice visited the United States, after 
his death. 

If time permit, and the pocketbook too, most interesting side 
trips to the other islands of the group may be made, especially to 
the active volcano, Mauna Loa, 13,760 feet high, with Kilauea on 
its eastern slope, situated on the Island of Hawaii. 

While the Hawaiian Islands may not be as perfect as they are 
advertised, they nevertheless give a very fair imitation of Paradise, 
and a better place in which to rest and enjoy nature in her kindest 
moods would be hard to find. 



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